Every year, the IRS announces that it is holding unclaimed tax refunds. Taxpayers have a limited time to claim the $2 billion dollars the IRS is currently holding.
Three years is a magical number when it comes to Tax Returns. It refers to the statute of limitations on certain tax issues such as when an audit can occur, when refunds can be claimed and when amended tax returns can be filed. The IRS is currently holding $2 billion dollars in unclaimed tax refunds for the 2002 tax year and taxpayers must file their claims by April 17, 2006 or lose the refunds forever.
Approximately 1.7 million people are due refunds out of the $2 billion dollars currently held by the IRS. These people have refunds due because they failed to file tax returns for 2002. This occurred most likely because people felt they did not make enough money to warrant filing a tax return. By failing to file, however, they have left $570 on average with the IRS.
If a taxpayer fails to claim the tax refund by filing a tax return for 2002, the money will default to the federal government. Importantly, there is no penalty associated for filing late if a taxpayer is due a tax refund. This is common misconception among non-filers.
One group of taxpayers that almost always has a large percentage of non-filers is military personnel. Obviously, it is a bit hard to file from Afghanistan, but now is the time to do so for 2002. Members of the military that failed to file in 2002 are owed an average of $749 per taxpayer.
The IRS releases demographic on the areas in the United States where refunds are due. To this end, California and Texas are the states where the most individuals are due refunds while Idaho has only 6,200 people due a refund.
Nobody finds filetaxes an exciting prospect. The pain is much less, however, is you know you are due a refund. If you failed to file in 2002, you might be throwing away a nice little chunk of change.
Wouldn't it be nice to know how much your income tax refund check will be. It's like having money in the bank. Yes, there is a simple way to estimate your tax refund in advance and it won't cost you a dime.
I'm about to show you how you can estimate your Federal IRS income tax refund or return in advance, for free!
How to estimate your income tax refund
Forget about using pen, paper and a calculator, we're going to estimate your taxes with the help of the Internet. Using an online tax refund estimator, we can get this done in about 10-15 minutes. The tax refund estimator will need to gather information about you, to make an estimate. All you have to do is make simple entries.
Here is how and what you'll be asked:
Screen 1. Your filing status, age, your children and other dependents.
Screen 2. Earnings, gross wages and self employment income.
Screen 3. Any investment income such as interest, dividends and capital gains.
Screen 4. Any other income such as rental, royalty , partnerships, trusts, tax refunds, alimony, unemployment, social security and any other income.
Screen 5. Ira and education expenses such as Ira contributions, student loan interest, college tuition and expenses.
Screen 6. Expenses, business and work related, self employed health insurance, moving, Keogh and other.
Screen 7. Deductions and personal expenses such as medical, real estate, mortgage interest, home equity loan, charitable contributions, alimony you paid, child care, gambling losses, theft and other.
Screen 8. Miscellaneous tax items. These tax items apply to relatively few people. AMT and other misc.
Screen 9. Withholding, Federal income tax withheld, State income tax withheld and future withholding if before end of tax year.
Screen 10. Tax payments you have made or will make for this year.
And now what you've been waiting for.
The Results! That's it, you'll know how much your tax refund will be, so you can make important financial decisions.
